The present invention relates to a galley chiller system for use in an aircraft, and more particularly, the invention relates to a more efficient galley chiller system having components shared with other cooling systems of the aircraft.
A typical commercial aircraft includes at least several nonintegrated cooling systems. For example, an aircraft cooling system primarily provides cooling for the aircraft cabin area. A power electronics cooling system cools the power electronics of various aircraft systems to maintain the electronics within a desired temperature range. A galley chiller system is dedicated to refrigerating the food carts in the galleys located throughout the aircraft. Each of these systems have a significant weight and power penalty associated to the aircraft. It is desirable to minimize the overall weight and power penalty to the aircraft to increase the overall efficiency of the aircraft.
Typically galley chiller systems are stand alone vapor cycle units. The galley chiller system includes a compressor pumping a refrigeration fluid to a condenser, which rejects heat from the compressed fluid within to the surrounding environment. The fluid from the condenser is regulated through an expansion valve to an evaporator where the refrigerant fluid expands to cool the fluid. The refrigerant fluid within the evaporator absorbs heat from the surrounding environment. The refrigerant fluid flows from the evaporator to the compressor where the cycle begins again.
The location of the galley chiller system condenser is such that typically a portion of the heat from the condenser is rejected to the cabin area, which increases the load on the aircraft cooling system. When the galleys are cooled within the desired temperature range, the galley chiller system may be unused or not operated to its full cooling capacity resulting in inefficiency in the context of aircraft's overall cooling systems.
Therefore, what is needed is a more efficient galley chiller system that more effectively uses the condenser and evaporator to reduce the requirements on the other cooling systems of the aircraft resulting in a reduction in weight and power penalty to the aircraft.